LAUREL, Md. — The Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI) graduated a dozen students from its School of Drycleaning Technology’s most recent Introduction to Drycleaning Course and eight from its Advanced Drycleaning Course. 

The Introduction course consists of five days of in-person, hands-on instruction, and the Advanced Course runs for 10 days. Founded in 1927, the organization says that its School of Drycleaning Technology has helped shape the careers of thousands of dry cleaners worldwide. 

These courses cover a number of subjects, including the science of dry cleaning; fabric construction; cleaning silk, satin and other fabrics; soil and cleaning theory; operating a drycleaning machine; pressing garments; understanding the differences between solvent types; and wet-cleaning wool, silk and more.

“I don’t want to bring people wrinkled clothes,” says Bolor Boldbaatar of Purple Hamper in Ashburn, Virginia. “I took both the introductory and advanced classes. I will be more confident in returning high-quality clothes to our customers and probably increase my prices. It’s blowing my mind how much we are learning in just a short amount of time. I can now train other people in my work, who train more people.”

“I’m a third-generation dry cleaner,” says Shamere Leonard of Nu Royal Dry Cleaners in Newport News, Virginia, “and my father and my son came to the last class. Once you get in the intro class, it’s like, ‘Wait, I want to learn more, I want to see more.’”

Tyler O’Connor of The Greener Cleaner in Chicago learned more about working in a drycleaning business. 

“I just graduated from high school, and I was looking for a job,” he says. “I was working the front counter at a drycleaning store, and my boss and my father came up to me, talking about this class and more information I could gain from it, especially since I just started in dry cleaning. They got me into this course, and it’s been going great. I definitely have a more in-depth understanding of what I’m doing now.”